Katherine Brunt and Issy Wong: Master and apprentice

"I'm really lucky," smiles Issy Wong. "I got a call on my 18th birthday from someone saying they wanted to give me a regional retainer for the summer, and if I did the right things then this would likely turn into a contract for the next year.

"I was born at a really good time, which is great for me."

Sat on her right, Katherine Brunt has seen it all before. She nods along like a proud parent and interjects: "She gets a pension from the beginning. Boom."

For half an hour, they bounce off one another as the past, present and future of fast bowling in this country. One, a product of Barnsley and decades of willpower through generations when the game looked nothing like this. The other, a child of Birmingham with Cantonese ancestry, for whom a pathway from county cricket to the international arena was mapped out by a system that has made dreaming of becoming a professional cricketer so much easier, via the Kia Super League, Women's Big Bash and The Hundred.

They are sportswomen of different eras exploiting a statistically unlikely collision: Wong remembers growing up watching Brunt bowl in away Ashes series – specifically the Test draw in which Ellyse Perry made a double hundred. Brunt, never one to maintain secrecy of her emotions, pulls a face of wistful disapproval: "Eugh, what a boring Test."

Yet, they are bound by a mutual respect – and in Wong's case, an undying admiration for England's greatest bowler and a sense of continued gobsmack that the cards have fallen for her to learn at first-hand from a legitimate idol.

"I woke up every day to watch that," she says, returning to the draw at Sydney in 2017, where just 21 wickets fell across four days. "I don't know why. I shouldn't have done it in hindsight! But I guess the fact that I remember watching her says it all, because I probably don't remember everyone I've watched.

"I remember watching some dreadful strikers for Liverpool that I can't even remember the names of, they were that bad. So, you definitely rank a bit higher than that, I guess."

^{Brunt is leading England's attack at the Commonwealth Games (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)}

Wong might just be one of the most impressive people in the sport right now, comfortable in speaking her mind and seemingly taking each new challenge in her stride, but there is a life-affirming cocktail of veneration and camaraderie in the way she talks about Brunt.

"It's a lot easier to answer when she's not here," she admits. The gist, though, is being able to live out the augmented reality of her childhood. "A lot of the cricket I watched growing up was Katherine steaming in, so to watch her steaming in when I'm stood at fine leg and then to be able to chat to her when I'm running in for the next over is pretty cool."

In the last two months, Wong has made international debuts in all three formats, thrown in for the drawn Test at Taunton as a sneak-peek to the future, before partnering Brunt – England's leading white-ball wicket-taker – for the ODIs and T20Is in the multiformat series against South Africa. Perhaps for the only instance in the time they will spend together as teammates, they are on an equal footing at the moment, both learning on the job as Commonwealth Games debutants. For Brunt, like much that has happened for the women's game in recent years, this has been a long-held pipedream.

"Every five-year period, I go along and something great happens and I can see the transformation," she reflects. "When I first came in, I missed wearing a skirt by a year. Thank God. Just to wear the men's kit from that year was enormous. I was like: 'What is this crap?' but I didn't realise that was a big shift.

"Then we won our first Ashes for the first time in 42 years, and suddenly I was in Trafalgar Square in front of 100,000 people on a bus with the boys. I was like: 'This is cool, look at the platform we're on.' But I didn't think of it as a platform then. I was 19 or 20 – why would I think about that? Five years on from that, we were in Australia, having not had to pay for the trip – we had our own rooms, and it was like: 'Woah, this is luxurious.' Another five years on, I could see it happening, but so slowly."

That chronology stems from a question prefaced with an acknowledgement to Brunt that she will find answering it uncomfortable: is she aware of the enormity of her own role in all this? "It's not something that I ever think of," she insists, "but I'm reminded of it every now and then. I don't know what exact impact I've had. I can only speak from what I've experienced."

^{Wong made her international debut in the one-off Test at Taunton (Ryan Hiscott/Getty Images)}

It's obvious, though, simply from watching how Wong hangs on her every word that Brunt's wisdom carries particular weight.

"I think of the World Cup in 2017 and how that celebrated the growth of the game, and even before that with World Cups and Ashes series when there wasn't the kind of structure and support that we've got now," says Wong. "If they hadn't gone on those tours, been so successful, worked so hard alongside doing other stuff, then I wouldn't have got that call on my eighteenth and we probably wouldn't be having a chat about this in Birmingham."

Brunt reaches over and pats her protégée on the shoulder. Part of that is in light-hearted jest, but there is also a well-founded pride at hearing one of the new guard – Wong hadn't turned two yet when Brunt made her international debut – speak with such clarity and appreciation about those who laid the foundations for all that exists now. One day, England's captain will come from a generation who only recognise these times, where they can train full-time and be paid for the privilege. It matters that they know how they got there.

"I guess there's a responsibility on people like myself, Alice Capsey and Freya Kemp to make sure that the generation after us have it even better than we've got," Wong continues, laced with a humility that complements her bubbly self-assurance.

"It's an ongoing thing – this isn't the end product, but we've got to do the same thing that these guys have done for us."

By chance, this interview is taking place within 24 hours of the Lionesses' triumph in the European Championships, an occasion with its parallels to England's World Cup win at Lord's five years ago. Sunday at Wembley doesn't find its way directly into this conversation, but the experiences of female athletes often transcend their own sport: the struggles for equality, the generations of amateurism and belittlement, paying to play, railing against blatant sexism, opportunities missed by governing bodies to harness momentum, progress belatedly coming through their own independent resolve.

"The biggest shifts have come from when we've taken it into our own hands," says Brunt. "Central contracts in 2014 was brought on by players putting their foot down, having a meeting with the PCA and the PCA getting behind us massively, and then that huge transition happened into professionalism, having pensions and maternity plans.

"This stuff doesn't happen without having a voice. And that's what Issy was saying: they have to carry that forward now. Unfortunately, you do have to make noise. You can't just let your performances do the talking, as much as it helps. Don't get me wrong, winning World Cups and Ashes helps. But it only helps in a slow growth, not a quick one.

"You can bring strikes into it – we've never had to, but we've talked about it. The only time things have happened in my experience – in immediate fashion – is if you're prepared to do something about it."

^{Brunt dismissed Wong in the Heyhoe Flint Trophy two years ago (Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)}

Thankfully, the top brass of English cricket is infiltrated now with former colleagues who remember the old days and have the game's best interests at heart: Clare Connor, Brunt's first captain, is the ECB's interim chief executive. Charlotte Edwards, her second and longest-standing captain, is president of the PCA. "When you complain about stuff or put stuff forward, you want them to understand where you're coming from," she explains. "And only people who've been there and done that in the arena know what you're talking about and what it means and what importance it has. It's really reassuring to have them behind the scenes as our voices.

"Hopefully there's a job for me as well."

Brunt laughs once again, more acutely aware than most of her own mortality as a cricketer. "I can say that over the last two years I've thought about retiring most weeks," she admits.

"Anyone who's gone this far in their career – past 15 years – the motivation and willpower to do stuff runs out, so you have to find a new purpose or a new way to motivate yourself. If the coach can't do that for you or the environment doesn't spice you up, you can really struggle."

Her marriage to Nat Sciver has provided an extra incentive to carry on – "if I retire, I go home and I'll be on my own; that sucks" – and she isn't speaking (or bowling) like a player on the wane, waiting for her moment.

Rather, injury has dragged her close to the edge of quitting on more than one occasion, and – having fought past those episodes of adversity through constant reinvention – she has declared frequently in the last few years that she will wait for a crop of youngsters to force her from England's plans.

However she performs – and this has arguably been Brunt's best summer for a good while – that time is coming ever-nearer: Wong is only one of an emerging cartel of seamers – Emily Arlott has been close on numerous occasions; Lauren Bell has stepped up to fill Anya Shrubsole's void; Freya Davies, for so long touted as Brunt's natural successor; is on the fringes; Freya Kemp has been fast-tracked as a coveted left-arm option; Kate Cross is the senior-seamer-in-waiting.

"I need to stop calling them kids," she sighs. "Younger athletes."

"Younger athletes," says Wong, repeating Brunt's self-correction and bursting out a laugh.

"Sorry," says Brunt. "I wouldn't want to be called a kid. They come in and freshen things up. They're just all happy and smiley. When you're with people who are my age all of the time, they're all kind of the same. We're all a bit moany, a bit sore, a bit fed-up. All that droning amongst each other can get a bit boring. So, when the youngsters come in and they're just happy and keen, they fire you up and they make you want to be better and be a bit more positive. They bring a bit more energy.

"That's what's so great about the youngsters: there's no fear there – it really is minimal. No fear of running in, expressing themselves and bowling. Then, the more experienced people take that and give it a plan and a purpose. It's a great mixture. It's certainly something I've needed."

^{Wong and Brunt celebrate during England's easy win over New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games (Alex Davidson/Getty Images)}

As a consequence, Brunt has found herself providing more mentorship than ever before, effectively vice-captain to her wife in the absence of Heather Knight and aware of her responsibilities as a guiding light. "I won't actively seek people out," she says, "but I'm most certainly there if you need me – and I'll say what I need to say if I need to say it just because there's nothing worse than getting to the end of an over and something happening and you're like: 'Fuck sake, I wish I'd said something.' Because there's no point in saying something when it's gone."

This new lease of life was needed more than ever on the back of a winter that – on paper – ended with a World Cup final appearance but, in reality, left England's players drained beyond belief and shattered after three months away from home under strict Covid restrictions. "I don't want to experience that ever again," says Brunt. "And I won't. I hope none of our team have to experience it. It's not sustainable. It's not humane. I hope someone listens to this and, when they write the schedules, think about people's humanity first before playing games for England."

Brunt's first step towards international retirement came in June, curtailing her Test career, a moment of figurative significance perhaps overblown on a practical level. At present, that amounts to an extra fortnight off each year. White-ball cricket, after all, is still the bread and butter of the women's game.

So, as she left the Test stage, it was fitting that she accepted Knight's request to present Wong with her Test cap, an honour she bestowed in the only way she knows how: an emotional, impassioned speech that lasted more than two minutes on the edge of the outfield and featured more than a couple wobbling lips.

"We've not actually spoken about it," says Wong, turning to Brunt as she realises they've never properly discussed the moment before now. England had kept the game's four debutants in the dark over who would make each presentation. On a morning like that, anyone will do. But Brunt was the right answer: a symbolic handover of the baton from tearaway to tearaway. "My mum had a little tear."

In retrospect, Brunt admits it was still raw to the point of struggling to agree to Knight's proposal. "I didn't know that I'd be able to hold it together. You're effectively handing something you love over to someone else to have, so it's hard. But it was emotion in the right way, not in the wrong way. It felt completely right."

^{Brunt made her T20I debut in 2005 (Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)}

For the first time in 14 years, England had neither Brunt nor Shrubsole on a Test teamsheet, and it was hard to deny the weirdness of that situation. A sliding-doors moment? "I guess so," says Brunt. "I wasn't ready to finish Test cricket; I still love it and I still think I had a lot to give with it. But the body is not unbreakable, and I think playing a one-off Test before a really important series was just a step too far when I was two weeks behind being absolutely ready.

"If we played it more regularly and my body wasn't as unpredictable as it is, I would probably keep playing until the end. But it's just not worth it.

"There are no regrets, but it turned out to be perfect because it was a really nice introduction for Issy. My first-ever game for England was a Test match, and it was brilliant for me. I was 19, and it was like: 'Here I am, I can bowl. I'm ready if you want me.'"

Wong's audition went similarly, igniting on the third evening – "the witching hour", as Brunt calls it – with the floodlights on and England sensing a chance to break the game wide open. It was the spell that gave total legitimacy to a new-found faith in youth, as well as vindication to the gamble on Wong, culminating in two wickets but more significantly an intangible confirmation that a 20-year-old – only a week earlier in the squad as a travelling reserve – was ready for the biggest stage.

"I definitely do see a lot of myself in Issy," says Brunt, reflecting on that mini-session when Wong carried an angry, fevered aura that took the crowd along for the ride. It was every inch a Bruntish, scruff-of-the-neck performance. She reprised it at Bristol on her first ODI appearance, bouncing out Chloe Tryon during the kind of short-ball barrage rarely seen in the women's game.

"That passion and aggression when she bowls is pretty much what I base everything I do on: the way I train, the way I play. You can't really control it – it just pours out of you. Sometimes it can be really cringe, but it's natural. When I started my career, I was very much like Issy: I just wanted to run in and bowl fast and try to get to 80mph."

There may well come a time when Wong has to adapt, as Brunt did when her back problems turned her from a "terrifying, tear-someone-apart" bowler into an "economical" seamer.

^{Wong was part of England A's tour of Australia over the winter (Julian Finney/Getty Images)}

"I soon realised that it wasn't going to be something that was achievable if I wanted to be around for more than five minutes.

"There was a time when I started to get smacked, and I didn't like it. I had to find a way to negate that and bring more wickets into my game. It's been great because I've been able to experience being a skilful bowler and a hit-the-pitch bowler, and it's given me another 10 years on my career.

"She's at that bit where she's fresh, can express herself and try to reach heights that she wants to."

But Wong has already matured sufficiently to see the bigger picture beyond the teenage days, when she was set on breaching the 80mph barrier. Help has been on hand but there has been an "encouragement to learn things for ourselves and make our own mistakes" on the basis that Brunt won't be around forever. Rely on her knowledge entirely, and "I'll probably do quite well but when she retires in three years' time or four years' time or six years' time, I'll probably be a bit screwed".

So, she has developed a skiddy bouncer, an array of slower variations and a dangerous yorker; entrusted with the new ball by England, she has found late swing, including perhaps her best delivery as an international cricketer – a hooping in-ducker through Lara Goodall for her first T20I wicket.

Her celebration was typically wild, entirely thrilled, the opposite of overawed. Touted since her mid-teens for big things, has representing England been as she anticipated?

"I don't know, to be honest. I think about playing for Liverpool all the time, but I don't actually think about what I'm going to do when I get the ball and who I'm going to pass it to or what I'm going to do when I celebrate. When I think about it, I always think about the things you don't have to think about: getting your kit on, singing the national anthem. You don't actually think about what you're going to do when you bowl or when you're at the top of your mark.

"I think I've got away with a lot – I've bowled some terrible balls, and some of them got what they deserved and some of them didn't. And I've bowled some okay balls, and some of them got what they deserved and some of them didn't. I guess it's just a bigger reflection of cricket as a whole, just on a bigger stage."

Ironically, she counts Bristol, where she secured her best figures to date, as her worst performance.

"Someone came up to me and said that with Alice Capsey and Freya Kemp in the squad, I was a seasoned veteran," she laughs. "I'd played four games at the time! I told them they needed to steady on. It's my first summer of being about, so I'm loving every second of it, to be honest. Getting to work with legends like Katherine…"

^{Wong dismissed Lara Goodall for her first T20I wicket (Nathan Stirk/Getty Images)}

Brunt lets out a playful cheer in recognition of her name, to which Wong offers an "oi, oi" in response. Their relationship – despite a 17-year age-gap – is terrific to watch up close, emblematic of a squad formed across three generations and Wong's remarkable maturity which, a year ago, manifested itself as a Sky Sports commentary debut during The Hundred.

There is no attempt from Brunt to hide that contrast between them: "Issy is way more mature than I was at her age. I didn't really give a shit. She's very intelligent for a start, and she knows what she wants. I was just having fun. I never really had ambitions or goals. I didn't even know there was an England women's cricket team until a year beforehand."

Wong briefly starts talking ahead to her own retirement, before rebuking herself for even going there, though she quips: "I might have to lose a few screws before I'm going for another 17 years."

"You'd have to be mental," replies Brunt, who has so often spoken about how little advice was available to her at the outset. A remaining ambition is to pass on all that she knows, and one piece sticks out more than any other.

"The key thing," she says, "is that you enjoy yourself and it brings you happiness. Whatever happens in between will happen if she's having fun."

Wong stares and listens, bewitched, and the future feels in safe hands.

---

Related Topics

• The week where it all came together for Alice Davidson-Richards